Book 12 Chapter 7 - Chance Encounter with Stunning Beauty
Three shadows leaped down from a giant boulder about three zhang tall, none of them was lucky enough to escape falling into knee-deep grass, gasping for breath, and unable to get up.
Xu Ziling was exhausted from the bitter fight plus he suffered injuries; after running away for close to two sichen, he was approaching the dried-out-oil-lamp condition.
Ba Fenghan was seriously injured to begin with; after spending quite a bit of true qi, he was weary and unable to stand.
Kou Zhong's condition was not any better. Earlier he was transmitting his internal energy to heal Ba Fenghan; when he heard Qu Ao's laughter, in his anxiety he tried to increase his effort by rushing the flow of qi to open up Ba Fenghan's blocked meridians. And then with excessive loss of energy he had to run for such a long distance; so now he was simply too tired.
Kou Zhong forced himself to roll so that he was facing the sky; scanning the area around, he saw under the moon light that they were surrounded by endless ups and downs silhouette of mountain tops and wild ridges. With a bitter laugh he said, "Are we lost? How come we still can't see the shadow of the city of Luoyang?”
Gasping for breath, Ba Fenghan said, "I looked at the stars in the sky to navigate our way, I am sure we are not lost; we ought to at least reach the south bank of the Great River.”
Xu Ziling shouted in low voice, "Get up and train!”
"What?” Kou Zhong and Ba Fenghan blurted together.
Setting up an example, Xu Ziling struggled as hard as he could to sit up; although he was swaying and staggering, his voice was full of determination, "Ol' Ba was the one who said this: if what we are training is first-class martial art, the thing we must avoid at all cost is that when we are weary we abandon everything as if we are paralyzed. Therefore, we must grasp this rare opportunity to withstand the exhaustion with iron will. Do you understand?”
Smiling ruefully, Ba Fenghan said, "Xu Shifu's admonition is correct.” Copying Xu Ziling, he struggled to sit up.
Kou Zhong also struggled to get up, but raised his tiger-body even more; standing upright and unafraid, he said, "To me, standing up is a bit more natural.”
The other two did not have enough strength to pay him any attention; closing their eyes, they went into meditation.
They all understood that this was the only way to survive. If they could restore their spirit and physical strength, either fighting or escaping would be a lot more convenient.
In fact, it was a race of power and stamina.
Originally it was only people of Wanwan and Qu Ao's caliber who could keep up with them, the others were left far behind. But they already wasted a lot of time by repeatedly stopping either to rest or to treat injuries, so the situation may have changed.
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Just before dawn, Kou Zhong suddenly shouted loudly. When Xu Ziling and Ba Fenghan opened their eyes with a start, Kou Zhong was leaping in the air, the Moon in the Well struck down a strange bird flying overhead.
The two had just waked up from the deepest breathing exercise, so they did not know why Kou Zhong did what he did.
‘Squack!' the strange bird cried out and flew sideways to evade toward the top of the sparse wood on the left.
Kou Zhong sent out a burst of finger wind from his left hand to strike the strange bird.
As if it had eyes on its back, the bird flapped its wing to fly diagonally up, but the tip of its left wing was still swept by Kou Zhong's finger wind. Uttering a sad cry, like a drunk it fell into the forest.
As if he was fighting an archenemy, Kou Zhong pursued into the forest.
Meeting Ba Fenghan's questioning look, Xu Ziling said, "I remember now. That must be the feathered beast raised by Shen Luoyan especially for finding the enemy; it was extremely mystical.”
Ba Fenghan's countenance changed, "That means Li Mi has more or less grasp our location, hence he released the strange bird in this area to look for us.”
Xu Ziling silently examined his condition, and found out that he has recovered about sixty, seventy-percent of his strength; the weariness has gone completely. "How's your condition?” he asked.
Sneering, Ba Fenghan said, "Outside the Great Wall, I don't know how many times I have been injured; at least it was ten times more serious than this. It's nothing!”
This moment Kou Zhong came back, disgruntled and upset. "It slipped away,” he said hatefully, "But it won't fly too far; that feathered beast relies on two wings to obtain balance, but since one side is wounded, it will be like us turning crippled. Ha!”
The two smiled without saying anything.
By dawn, the three felt their spirit rose, as if they had just regained their lives and felt wonderful.
Returning the saber to its scabbard, Kou Zhong said with a laugh, "Which way?”
Ba Fenghan's eyes flashed with cold rays; turning his gaze to the north, he said, "We'll go down to the Great River first, and then we'll find a way to get a boat to save our leg muscles!”
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The three men gave it all as they unleashed their qinggong, while using the hiding-their-track technique, to cover several dozen of li of distance to the north. The sun has not reached its zenith yet when they slowed down to preserve their physical strength and true qi, while looking around to examine their surroundings.
Pointing to the northwest, Ba Fenghan said, "Luoyang and Yanshi should be that direction, but if we ran along a straight line, it would be strange indeed if we did not enter into the enemy's inescapable net.”
Kou Zhong was visibly moved; he said, "In that case, let's go to Yanshi first!”
Naturally Xu Ziling knew that he wanted to go to Yanshi in search of Wang Shichong, in order to offer him advice on how to deal with Li Mi.
Ba Fenghan, on the other hand, was slightly surprised, "Didn't you want to go to Luoyang in a hurry?”
A bit awkward, Kou Zhong replied, "One of the reasons I want to go to Luoyang is to look for Wang Shichong, but I heard Li Mi said that he was leading his troops to Yanshi city. Since we are on our way over there, I want to talk to him a little bit!”
Ba Fenghan laughed involuntarily, "Don't invent crazy nonsense!” he said, "Do you think I don't know that you, Zhong Shao, want to kill using borrowed knife? Just like Ziling, I don't give a about this vying-over-the-world business; but since we know each other, and I have nothing important to attend to, coming with you to join the fun is not a big deal.”
Kou Zhong was happy, "I didn't know you are such a true friend.”
By this time the three of them were staring to climb on a hill; they saw a small village down below with several dozens of homes, but there was no liveliness, apparently it was an abandoned village.
In this age of chaos, abandon villages like this one could be seen anywhere, so nothing surprising here.
But Ba Fenghan suddenly halted his steps and spoke in low voice, "Somebody's in the village!”
Following him, Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling also stopped; concentrating their attention, they noticed that all doors and windows were shut tight, the buildings were dilapidated with the paint peeled off. There was really not much different to the abandoned villages they had seen previously.
Xu Ziling nodded and said, "I am having similar feeling, like something is not right. Ol' Ba, what did you find?”
Ba Fenghan replied heavily, "I just saw a flicker from the crack of one of the windows; must be an eye reflecting the light. I am so sure about it.”
Grabbing his head, Kou Zhong said, "Who could it be?”
"Perhaps somebody who has nothing to do with us,” Xu Ziling tried to analyze, "If it were Shen Luoyan or Yin Gui Pai people, why so sneaky?”
"Xiao Ling is right,” Kou Zhong said, "So what are we going to do? Shall we make a detour?”
Ba Fenghan smiled and said, "Since he is contending for the hegemony over the world, Zhong Shao's guts have become smaller. But being careful has its own pros and cons; if we take a detour and bump into the enemy instead, it is not worth it.”
Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, "Enough thinking and bullsh1tting, let's go!”
Taking the lead, he ran down the slope.
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